We departed Walker Lake and headed through Hawthorne and on through the empty desert via Tonopah with our final destination being Goldfield. Hawthorne is the home to a very large Army ammo depot (“they” say the world’s largest) and you can see the bunkers throughout the country side. There are over 2,400 ammunition bunkers and the depot is over 226 sq miles. It is big!! Moving on to Tonopah, we again, passed the Clown Motel but didn’t stop by. We need to do it one of these days.
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Clark’s Custom Camp is a very small RV park on the north end of Goldfield and it is a newly built RV Park. It is a very basic RV Park but provides all you need for a short stay.
Campground: Clark’s Custom Camp
Location: Goldfield, Nevada
Site: 5 (pull-thru)
Cost: $30
Services: FHU (50 AMP)
Comments: A small RV park right off the main highway (Highway 95) with large, level pull thru sites and full hookups. The area was well maintained. They have a building with restrooms, showers, laundry, and lounge/TV area which they provide a key for you to use while you are there. There was a bit of noise from traffic along Highway 95 during the day but at night it was pretty much complete silence.
The town of Goldfield is 26 miles south of Tonopah and is a living ghost town. Gold was discovered here in 1902 and from 1904 to 1918 the town boomed and they had nice restaurants, hotels, churches, theaters, shops, sporting events, casinos, and even a red light district. There was a railroad that connected to Las Vegas and their population was over 20,000 which made it Nevada’s largest community at the time. Today the population is under 300. Much of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1923 but there are still quite a number of old historic buildings standing. It is a great little town to explore by foot. We walked everywhere in town from the RV Park and explored everything this great little town has to offer.
On the south side of town is The International Car Forest of The Last Church which is a free, large open air art gallery and is open 24/7. It was started by a local resident, Mark Rippie, along with Chad Sort and Zak Sargent, who wanted to create the world’s largest car forest. They took 40 cars and put them all around the 90 acre area. The “Last Church” part of the name was derived from Mark’s website name which details religious theories that want nothing to do with organized religion. It was great fun to walk around and admire the art and the cars!!
We can’t believe we have driven through Goldfield so many times and never stopped and spent a few nights to get out and explore the town. Well, now we have!
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